Aussie Customs On The Lookout For Mortal Kombat Imports

James Kozanecki over at Gamespot has spoken to a spokesperson from the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service, who has confirmed that Mortal Kombat has been added to its list of prohibited items and that gamers who import could be subject to a fine of up to three times the cost of the game.

"Customs and Border Protection works closely with Attorney General’s Department to identify imported games that are banned in Australia," claimed the spokesperson. "This includes games purchased over the internet from foreign websites…

"Any copies of the games detected at the border, including via international mail, will be seized."

ok, australia. so you dont have a r-18 rating... ok, you dont alow mortal kombat to be sold here. australians have two options now, import, or pirate.
then, you tell them you will fine them if they import..

brilliant work, now everyone is just gonna pirate it.

not that i wanted the game, but its just idiotic for this to be happening.

Thank you very much Gamespot for not only spouting the damned obvious (ie. customs will seize restricted items if they bother to actually inspect your parcels)

But for also putting a damned target on the new MK. People have been importing games for donkey's years in au whether via eBay or online shops. And I have yet to see anyone busted/fined for importing games..

Mainly because of the fact that in the grand scheme of things video games are the LEAST of border controls problems... (drugs, weapons, etc.)

But hey why not give them a heads up and say target these game imports instead?

People will want to get their hands on this game and if the semi-gray area of imports are closed off can you guess what au players will turn to?

The good news is... judging from the article it just sounds like standard answer to "if we find anything illegal in your parcel" script... instead of an actual red cross hair on game imports =/

The profile of this one pretty much already ensured that they'd pay more attention to it than they otherwise would. That said, your chances are still pretty good because prohibited video games are fairly low on the list of customs priorities.

I hear next year they're banning cars. People die in accidents you know. Don't worry, we're all going to be assigned "bumper cars" like at carnivals.

Also, incase anybody falls over when they get out of their car we're going to have to wear bubblewrap duct taped around ourselves and a protective mask with a smell filter so we won't be offended with the way cities smell like urine.

Yeah. I think this is just the standard response when asked for a comment about importing pretty much anything you're not meant to. After all they can't turn around and say 'unless the sender is dumb enough to write Mortal Kombat (that banned game) on the tracking slip it'll probably get through'. Pretty much the only thing they can do is say they're cracking down and hope to scare people off.

Plus it's customs we're talking about. There's no money in stopping games coming in, and there's no harm that can be directly traced back to them letting a game in, so no matter what they say Mortal Kombat is never going to be high on their list of priorities.

all they need to know is known online stores, if it has a disc in it, then they may check it. I know for a fact when windows 7 came out, and we got our free upgrade, customs opened up the envelope with the windows 7 software upgrade to check it, and even put phamplets in there to show what they do, why they do it (though its pretty much to say we are doing our job)

besides, dont most stores have an option to make special requests? (not sure how far they would go, but they could do something?)

Seriously, see what this has done, without an R18 rating people will result into getting it pirated which makes just BUYING THE GAME LEGALLY not that bad.

If this country allowed previous MK's and even movies like Saw (that has an MA15+ RATING?!) in here then why not this?

WHAT IS SO BAD ABOUT THIS GAME? NOTHING!

The only bad thing here is that the ACB not getting off their lazy fat arse and giving us an R18 rating. Its not that that hard!

Sure it would probably take a year to implement, but I can wait! Just announce it that we are getting R18 rating and I'll breathe easier because that means that we won't need to worry about future banning.

straight up in 2010 the gaming industry earned 3 times the ammount that thje movie and music industry made put together.. How can Australia be so backwards and stupid not to have an r18 rating when the gaming industry is such a huge market.. I'll admit right now, because of this i have downloaded mk as a torrent and will be burning and playing it. Fuck you australian politicians

The problem is though, how many packages are actually checked, and what's the chance of it being one specific game? Adding to that, every game I've bought has "optical media" written on the declaration. So add DVD's to that!

Unless I'm completely wrong and they have a much cooler way of working out whats inside a package these days :P

As stated above the x/ray scanners can't tell what game it is. Play-Asia always put generic terms on their shipping labels (for standard shipping) like "toys" or "DVD". L4D2 and others made their way to my home without any issues.

Ok I'm really confused. I thought that it was ok to import RC'd games? So long as you aren't buying them or selling them in aus? Could someone clarify this for me? I've been hearing so many different stories, like the laws are different in my state (WA).

I believe Customs examine ~10% of parcels. But I remember when GTA something came out, they apparently paid particular attention to DVD-sized mail from NZ and HK, two places people tend to import RC games from.

Of course, that's all second-hand internet talk, but it's certainly what I'd do if I was them.

As James suggests, making a distinction between how much you paid for it versus the Australian market value is relatively insignificant when you look laws surrounding the penalties.

I preface this by stating that I am not a lawyer, nor do I have any legal background. I have simply followed the trail of information. This should not be taken as legal advice.

As the article states, RC'd content is considered "objectionable material" under regulation 4A of Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations (1956). The penalty for doing so is outlined in 233AB(2) of the Customs Act (1901) as "3 times the value of those goods; or 1,000 penalty units; whichever is greater."
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ca1901124/s233ab.html

"Penalty units" are currently defined as $110 by section 4AA(1) of the Crimes Act (1914), which is how the $110,000 figure is derived.
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ca191482/s4aa.html

As for commercial quantities, I remember seeing the numbers of 25 or greater being dealt with differently. But I can't recall where I saw it.

If any one thing about The Last Jedi has been contentious -- actually, no, strike that, everything about The Last Jedi has been contentious, including its approach to space combat (the Holdo Manoeuvre, anyone?). But according to one fan and critic, Rian Johnson's epic actually makes space combat in the Star Wars universe more explicable, not less.